Don't ban guns. Change societal behaviors

[caption id="attachment_71442" align="alignright" width="300"] Some of the weapons collected in Wednesday's Los Angeles Gun Buyback event are showcased Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012 during a news conference at the LAPD headquarters in Los Angeles. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office says the weapons collected Wednesday included 901 handguns, 698 rifles, 363 shotguns and 75 assault weapons. The buyback is usually held in May but was moved up in response to the Dec. 14 massacre of students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)[/caption]

NEWPORT BEACH, Ron Williams, U.S. Secret Service, retired; CEO Talon Companies, a professional security and risk management firm: I do not advocate or support the sale of assault weapons to citizens other than the military or police, and I agree that they should be banned. But guns are not the problem with violence in America.

If we followed the logic of avid supporters of banning guns, then perhaps we should ban box cutters, which were used on Sept. 11, 2001, to bring down three passenger planes and kill nearly 3,000 people. We should also ban items we can purchase at our local grocery store that can be used to make improvised explosive devices.

The issue of violence in America is one of culture, a lack of training to detect dysfunctional behaviors that indicate a propensity for violence and specific protocols to deal with the mentally ill or persons deemed to be dangerous to themselves and others.

We have allowed violent video games and movies to provide “entertainment.” When “at risk” individuals see killing by playing the violent video games and watching violent movies they become desensitized to death. They are unable to distinguish between playing the game or watching a movie and reality. They began to lack empathy. We must address how we are being entertained, and there must be guidelines for acceptable games and movies in order to change our culture.

There must be more training in our schools and in our society to detect those behaviors that signal a person has a propensity for violence. The disaster at Columbine, Virginia Tech and, now, at Sandy Hook, could have been avoided if people had been trained to detect those behaviors and statements that indicate they were planning to engage in violence.

But changing our culture, and detecting aberrant and dysfunctional behaviors, will not deter violence unless we have a solution for how we should handle those we determine to be dangerous. In most cases of targeted violence, people close to the perpetrator knew they were dangerous, but there were no protocols or procedures to effectively deal with the perpetrator or perpetrators. Law enforcement can only react to a violent act.

Attorneys quickly advise their clients to get a Temporary Restraining Order without understanding that a TRO could cause some mentally ill folks to violently act out. Under the ruling in Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, a psychologist can only act if the person makes a direct threat on someone's life. Even if a person is deemed a threat to himself, herself or others, [an involuntary] commitment for a 72-hour observation at a mental institution frequently finds the at-risk person as dangerous when back on the street as when committed. We must have a lawful method of deterring and isolating those who are dangerous from the rest of society.

Banning guns is not the solution. Changing behaviors, training our citizens to detect those behaviors that indicate a propensity for violence and having firm policies and protocols to deter and isolate those who are deemed dangerous from the rest of society is the only way we can avoid targeted violence in the future.

Read the studies and compare statistics

LAGUNA WOODS, Ronald O. Davies: Dr. Phyllis Agran's letter, “Guns don't belong around children” [Letters, Dec. 29], is correct in saying that “the most basic need of parents is to protect their children.” However, she is so very incorrect in claiming that “the safest home for a child is a home without a gun.” The physician in Connecticut whose wife and daughters were raped and set on fire during a ghastly 2007 home invasion didn't have a gun to protect his family. Why would anyone want to proudly display a large lawn sign that invites criminals in by announcing a “gun-free home”?

It is offensive to claim that America has “a national culture that tolerates tragedies” like the Sandy Hook shootings. The entire nation abhors the murders by what was clearly a mentally ill person.

Agran quotes a study that included 18-year-old gangsters shot by police or other gang members as “children.” When the ages of “victims” are dropped to 9 years old or under, these studies are basically useless. Far more lives are saved by guns than are taken by them. Studies have shown that firearms used or merely displayed in self-defense stop as many as 2 million crimes a year. If we were bombarded daily by these common stories perhaps there would be some balance in this discussion. But common outcomes don't make news. Rare and uncommon acts make headlines.

Accidental deaths by firearms are below 800 per year in the United States while sloppy handwriting by physicians cause about 7,000 deaths per year due to pharmacy errors. So physicians with pens are nearly 10 times more dangerous than guns.

I am an anesthesiologist, not a pediatrician, and I would never presume to ask a patient if they had alcohol in the house. Or matches. Or tobacco. Or pens.

It is the height of arrogance for a pediatrician, with, apparently, no weapons training, to advise parents about firearms in the home, especially when studies she quotes have been widely rejected.

Clear thinking on gun control

CORONA, Gene Richau: In a rare moment of clear thinking, some elected officials are finally getting serious about preventing malicious misuse of guns by putting forth proposals for stricter gun control laws. Definitely a step in the right direction – and it shouldn't stop there.

Thousands of people die in this country annually due to the reckless misuse of drugs and it's time we take a stand on drugs as well. We need to enact strict laws on the sale, transport and use of drugs. Regardless of cost, we need to create and fund a task force or federal agency with broad authority to crackdown on drug-related criminal activity. We need stricter federal sentencing guidelines to ensure that even minor offenses carry the maximum sentences, regardless of the circumstances.

State and local governments must take charge as well by enacting tough new laws, even going so far as to seize the property of those who unwittingly included in the commission of drug-related trafficking, whether they were aware or not. Finally, local governments need to create and fund departments within their local police agencies expressly for the interdiction and prosecution of those involved in the violation of the tough no-nonsense drug laws that are sorely needed.

If this strategy works in curtailing gun violence by keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, it will most surely force criminals to give up destroying America's youth with this insidious drug trade. If Prohibition worked to control the abuse of alcohol, it will surely work to control gun and drug violence.

What's that you say? We already have strict drug laws in place? And criminals are still breaking the law? Really? Well hopefully this time it'll be different. Lucy, get the football.

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